Human side of fracking debate

By Brian Nearing

Updated 7:31 am, Sunday, December 2, 2012

Manager David Spence talks about the uptick in business on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, at Andre and Son Inc. in Montrose, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Manager David Spence talks about the uptick in business on Tuesday,...

Doreen and John Tillman, owners of The Cluck Chicken Hatch, talk about their concerns of hydro-fracking on their organic farm business on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Franklin Forks, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Doreen and John Tillman, owners of The Cluck Chicken Hatch, talk...

Resident Ken Blaisure talks about living near a natural gas drilling site on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, at his home in Bridgewater, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Doreen Tillman, who owns of The Cluck Chicken Hatch with her husband John, holds a chicken on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Franklin Forks, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Doreen Tillman, who owns of The Cluck Chicken Hatch with her...

Doreen Tillman, who owns of The Cluck Chicken Hatch with her husband John, feeds the chickens on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Franklin Forks, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Doreen Tillman, who owns of The Cluck Chicken Hatch with her...

Doreen and John Tillman, owners of The Cluck Chicken Hatch, talk about their concerns of hydro-fracking on their organic farm business on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Franklin Forks, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

Doreen and John Tillman, owners of The Cluck Chicken Hatch, talk...

One of Doreen and John Tillman's cats sits by an anti-fracking sign on their property on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Franklin Forks, Penn. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)

One of Doreen and John Tillman's cats sits by an anti-fracking sign...

Some residents tell their personal stories on how the natural gas hydrofracking boom has changed Susquehanna County, Pa.. Natural gas drilling has brought new cash into the predominantly rural county, driving up some wages and spurring business. But rents and other prices are going up as well, putting a squeeze on lower-paid workers. And a minority of residents remain leery of potential environmental damage in an area deeply rooted in farming.

John and Doreen Tillman

Owners of Cluck Chicken Hatch, Franklin Forks

The Tillmans are transplants from New Jersey who came to Susquehanna County separately looking for the self-sufficient good life. He arrived in 2007, abandoning a doctoral program in international relations at Rutgers University and taking $50,000 in life savings, and she came two years later, drawn by childhood memories of property her father owned in the county.

They met in the nearby Salt Springs State Park, where natural gas that came up out of a stream was used a century ago to light a farmhouse. He moved into her property, an 11-acre farm, and they now raise about 150 chickens, selling the eggs to restaurants and local farmers markets, including one in Binghamton, where some customers are reluctant to buy because of concerns over potential contamination from hydrofracking. They also raise two cows, and produce.

Neighbors have two gas wells, one on either side of their farm, and at night through the trees the Tillmans can see a well being "flared off" to burn excess natural gas. After drilling started last year, their well water showed increased levels of the mineral manganese and "sulphur bacteria" that were found to be within federal safety limits, but to be safe, they hauled in spring water from Montrose using jerry cans. "The water smelled like rotten eggs; we were afraid to use it." said John, 45.

Doreen wanted to sell the farm and leave, but John argued to stay. "In this county, we've got two sides, fighting two different things — the land, water and air, and the other side, cash and the economy," said Doreen, 46.

John said the point of view of many county residents was summed up by his grain delivery salesman, who leased his property to a gas company. "He told me, 'The gas company has given me a lot of money, they can blow up my house if they need to, I don't care.' There is kernel of truth to that."

Added Doreen, "A lot of people have been seduced by the money. It is an aphrodisiac."

Rex Catlin

CEO Endless Mountain Health Systems

The not-for-profit group took over the privately owned Montrose hospital in 1997, and later began working on fundraising to replace the original 1950s-era structure, which was badly out of date. Progress was painfully slow until the gas boom.

Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., the largest driller in the county, got involved last year, donating $1 million and offering to match another $1 million if the community could raise it. The community came up with $1.2 million and Cabot matched that, which in turn encouraged a charitable foundation in Scranton to come up with another $1 million grant.

"Fundraising with the gas company was the key. It was huge," said Catlin. "We raised more money in that three-month period that we had been able to raise in the previous five years."

A new 25-bed hospital, along with an adjoining physicians clinic, is under construction as part of a $48 million project that will also include a new outpatient center. It should open by the fall of 2013.

"This is the biggest construction project ever in the county, that I am aware of," said Catlin.

He said the hospital will serve up to 20,000 people, saving trips of a half-hour or more to hospitals in Binghamton or Scranton.

Felter, 60, a former truck driver, runs a crew that landscapes where a growing network of underground gas pipelines are being installed. He lives in a trailer in a campground in the town of New Milford, about 10 miles east of Montrose, and makes the hour-long trip home for his days off.

He was in local farm supply store Andre & Son in Montrose, getting a oad of grass seed and other supplies for his 12-man work crew. "I have to work down here because of all the delay up in New York on gas drilling. All that is myth and hype. I wish they would approve it already. If people cannot see the benefit of this, they are blind," he said.

"My wife wasn't sure she wanted me to travel down here — until after she saw the first paycheck," he said. Now he said he does all of his personal shopping in Montrose. "They give to me, I give back."

Manager of Andre & Son, a fourth-generation Montrose family business that sells farm supplies, commercial turf, land and garden supplies, and ATVs and snowmobiles.

"This area had a hard-hit economy. Farming was almost gone," said Spence, a native and 1979 graduate of the local high school. But just before the gas boom hit, the company owners decided to expand their main retail showroom to 10,000 square feet, and "it was perfect timing." With business booming, Andre added five full-time employees, bringing its total staff to 46.

At the front of the store were large displays of clothing and gloves rated FR, or fire resistant, which is required by many gas workers. "We sell a lot of that now," Spence said.

Many of the incoming gas workers come from southern or western states, and aren't used to northern winters, so Andre is selling a lot of warm-weather gear, and insulation for the trailers and mobile homes where some workers live because of a shortage of apartments.

The company is also selling a lot more fertilizers and grass seed for restoring land used for well drilling pads and newly installed gas pipelines that connect the growing network of wells to larger lines that eventually connect with main lines that supply the Northeast.

"We used to get tractor-trailer loads, and we are getting railroad carloads," Spence said.

With more jobs available, some Montrose natives are returning, he said. Even his own son, a recent college graduate, is coming back to get a job driving a tractor trailer for a gas company. And the new hospital? "It would have never happened without the gas," he said.

Ken Blaisure

Owner of a 10-acre horse farm and kennel several miles north of Montrose off Route 167, where he breeds prize-winning collies.

Drilling started near his farm in the spring of 2011, about three years after he signed a gas lease for his property. He sold his lease to Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., which later sold it to another Texas firm, Carrizo Marcellus LLC. That company is building two large well pads nearby and a drilling tower can be see from his front porch. He and his wife got $2,500 an acre, or a total of $25,000, for the lease. "My wife and I used it to pay some bills," he said. "We are hoping for a royalty check if gas starts flowing, but don't want to get our hopes up."

His well water turned "turgid" this summer after the drilling started. The gas company arrived to test his water, and provided bottled water for the family, as well as the dogs and horses, he said.

"It turned out to be just sediment in the water and that has settled out." The gas company installed free water filters at their home, as well as his barn and kennel. "We get follow-up calls from them every week, checking to see if everything is OK."

Blaisure, a retiree from Procter & Gamble in adjoining Montgomery County, said he was concerned about heavy trucks ruining the hard-packed road, but the gas company has maintained the road and "it is as good a shape as it has ever been. Overall, I would say that gas drilling has not been much of an inconvenience at all."